Three Sessions, Three Days from Brandon Scheid

The past three days have been all time here in Park City, UT. The wind has been blowing and the weather has been beautiful. Me and Arla have managed to get out kiting every day this week. The first day was at a spot called “The Home Depot Spot”. Its a large open field with a gently falling hill.

It always nice to see kites up when you arrive at the kite spot. A few other kiters from the local area were already ripping it up. I launched my 13m Hi-Fi strapped on my LF/Decosse Board and took off. I was having fun throwing some wake tricks in the soft snow down the hill; took some big diggers while I was at it. It wasn’t long until local photog Thor showed up. We took some basic riding shots before he put up his kite and grabbed a session.

After a few hours the wind started to drop and all the kiters headed back to the cars. Everyone gathered up all their gear and drove off to their warm houses. We stuck around a bit longer and I did some presses on the snow with the last of the breeze.

{openx:86112}

For day two we setup a spot with the local television network PCTV. We arrived at “Desperations” about three hours early to get everything setup for the shoot. I also took some time to build a kicker over the only bush in the whole field.

As soon as we got everything ready the wind showed up. The snow was very wet and slushy, perfect conditions for wake tricks. I managed to do some legit, kite low tricks; I even managed to land some back mobes.

The production crew showed up right on time and I was able to score some good shots for their segment. We also did some interviews pertaining to kiting and ourselves. After wards one of the filmers hoped on my kite and gave it a go. He picked it up faster than I thought, until he slammed it into the snow. Guess there he still needed some kite time. I quickly grabbed the kite from him and headed off to the kicker I had built. The wind was super light but sill managed to get some good hits. Hopefully I can ride it again with some more wind.

Finally today we sessioned a spot called Strawberry Reservoir. It is a big frozen lake with low lying hills all around.

We started out session by tacking into the middle of the lake to an island. One side was a mellow up hill, the other was a sheer drop off. It was super fun to boost off the cliff and land super soft. Next we headed to another big hill that you could jump off and kiteloop back onto. It was crazy the hill would drop out from under me, only to come right back as I looped the kite. The last spot was just around the parking lot, there was a ton of snow piled up from plowing which allowed for a ton of creativity. First I sessioned a makeshift quarter pipe, nailed some tail stalls and some backrolls.

{openx:86112}

Next I made a nice hip kicker I threw some flat 3s and 5s, and blasted some big glides off of it. The takeoff was steep and the landing was really soft.

Shortly after making the kicker the wind dropped, switched directions, and came up by about 20 mph. Along with the wind came a whiteout too, we could barely see the parking lot to come in. Thank goodness I had my Dragon Goggles or I don’t think I would have made it in. We packed up in the blizzard and started the terrifying ride home. Looks like we are going to have a epic powder day tomorrow.